July 25th, 2010 by master

Editor’s note: This story was written by Kat Salazar, a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.

“Didn’t you get the memo to wear black?” joked one person in the back row to a friend. Most of those attending the event July 20 at the UW Book Store actually were wearing black, probably unintentionally.

But the predominant wardrobe color spoke volumes about the sort of crowd that editor Ellen Datlow attracts. And members of that crowd are largely fans of science fiction, fantasy and horror books – people who gravitate toward the weird or the eerily enigmatic. They sat patiently awaiting Datlow, a well-known editor in the genre’s publishing world.